One Life For Another
by Shadowdib
Summary: Ryou wants Mariku out of the shadows, and has to make a deal to get him there. Mpreg.


A/N I just remembered ffnet doesn't have tags like ao3, so here are the warnings: Body horror, consumption of dead animals (not like meat, but like an actual dead animal), mpreg, demon pregnancy, and birth. No sex though. This took over a month, which is REALLY long for me. I usually do short ficlets, at least I have for the past few years, but this just kept getting longer. I'd love reviews!

* * *

Ryou had clawed his way into the shadows for this, and he wasn't leaving without Mariku. They'd managed to communicate through a Ouija board and a few possessions that had allowed them to talk, but as much as Mariku had tried to hide it, he was getting weaker. He'd either die or become completely unresponsive, and Ryou couldn't have that.

Which was why his magical projection was talking to a demon. They had skin the color of red velvet cupcakes, and a grin at Ryou's nervous chatter.

"You want me to draw this man you love from the darkness for no payment?"

"What do you want?" Ryou chose each word carefully, and the demon paused to think. Ryou was struck by their eyes- a dazzling, almost ruby-red color.

"I want… you."

"Me?" Ryou half-squeaked, before steadying himself. "If you want my virginity, then- "

"Oh, no, pet. I mean _you_. Your body."

"You want to possess me?" He tried again, and again the demon shook their head.

"I can tell your body is strong in the ways of magic. If you want this man back, then you will consent to carry a child for me."

Ryou's eyes widened. "You want me as an incubator."

They clapped their hands. "Bingo! One life for another. I give you what you want, and you give me what I want. That sounds fair, don't you think?"

Ryou swallowed. "I assume this is the only deal you'll take."

"Unless you're willing to offer your soul, which people seem so stingy with nowadays, yes."

"Then with a few conditions, I'll accept." Ryou tried to take a breath, but the shadow magic slithered down his throat like the humidity on a muggy summer day.

"You're not in much of a position to be making caveats." Still, the demon didn't immediately banish him, listening.

"First, you'll guarantee I'll survive birth, and second, you'll give me an appropriate entrance and organs so it doesn't have to burst out of my chest." He paused. "You'll also send Mariku back not-dead, and without any diseases or deadly injuries that mean he'll die soon. He comes back whole or not at all. And you don't get to take him back when the baby is born."

The demon laughed. "You have flair! Fine, I shall accept your conditions. I couldn't care less what happens to him, honestly. Now that the dark one has been banished, I can rescue your precious lover. The moment he is in your arms, you will be with child, my child, and from conception to delivery, you will not die or be gravely injured. It would do me no good to kill you, after all. Deal?"

Ryou swallowed, holding out a hand that the demon took. "Deal."

xxxx

Ryou had been sitting on the couch and trying not to think of everything that could go wrong when Mariku was dumped unceremoniously on his lap. The second they touched, he felt a twinge in his gut, and a searing fire moments later, accompanied by what felt like the area between his legs being ripped open. He couldn't even see the look on Mariku's face as he doubled over, hissing through his teeth.

Pain. He should have asked it to not be painful.

"Wh-what's going on?" Mariku's voice wasn't full of bravado, stripped raw. "Is that- Ryou, is that you?" He leaned forward to touch the soft face currently dripping with sweat, fingers running down pale skin like it was the most precious silk in the world. "Did I die?"

"N-no." Ryou choked out, the stabbing agony starting to recede, before a concentrated pinprick of boiling lava in his lower stomach forced another gasp out of him. "I brought you back."

Mariku's hand stilled. "You brought me back?"

For the first time, Ryou realized what a state the other was in- his hair was so matted down from unwash and blood that he looked more like Malik than ever. His clothes were torn and filthy, and bruises decorated his skin. But most of all, his eyes were deep and haunted, more like a child that had seen a pile of rotted corpses than the monster everyone had known during Battle City.

He knew instantly that he'd made the right choice before passing out into Mariku's arms.

xxxx

Ryou woke up still on the couch, with an assortment of jackets and sweaters strewn loosely over his body. Mariku was on the other end, bouncing a leg and biting his nails down enough his fingers were bleeding. Ryou wasn't hurting anymore, at least.

"Hey." He pushed himself up, and Mariku whirled around.

"You're not- what the fuck happened?" Anger and fear slipped together like a molotov cocktail as he grabbed Ryou's collar, a raincoat sliding off with a swishing sound.

"I…" Ryou was dizzy with the weight of what was sinking in as reality. "I made a deal, to get you back."

"If you were fucking around with Zorc, Ryou, I will strangle you." His concern slipped through the furious words.

"Zorc's gone. The pharaoh banished him. Besides, I wouldn't make a deal with him." Ryou almost spat the last word out. "It was a lesser demon."

"What did you give up, then? For… me?" The grip on his collar loosened slightly. "Don't say you bet yourself."

"They wanted… a surrogate." Ryou said slowly.

Mariku's face twisted, this time with confusion. "A what?"

"Someone to carry a baby for them. I don't think they can reproduce on their own, or at least, not reliably."

"Oh." Mariku's amethyst eyes widened. "Oh."

"Yeah." Ryou set a hand on his stomach- it was thin now, but he had no doubt in the coming months it would swell. "Oh. But I didn't want you dying there, no one deserves that, and you should get another chance at- "

Mariku lunged at him and wrapped him up in quite possibly the tightest hug Ryou had felt in his life.

"I don't deserve this." It was choked through the beginning of a sob, and Ryou set a hand on his back. Even being as gentle as he could, it caused a wince of pain that Mariku tried to shove back, and Ryou took a deep breath.

He could do this. He'd have regretted it for the rest of his life if he hadn't.

Now he just had to make it to delivery and they'd be fine. He'd ask for happily ever after, but right now, he'd be content with just… living.

xxxx

Ryou had work, but he'd summoned Mariku back during winter break, and he usually worked from home anyway, so they had time to grow re-acquainted. The first few days had been interesting, in which Mariku had torn apart practically his entire fridge- it was his first food in over two years, after all. Ryou had never been able to do more than communicate, and the occasional burnt offering hadn't reached him. Ryou had gotten him some new clothes, but he often layered odd combinations, like a hoodie under one of Ryou's old trench coats. Ryou thought it was endearing, honestly- he was learning to be human.

He also insisted on sharing a bed with Ryou, even though they'd done nothing more than cuddle with the occasional kiss on the cheek or forehead.

It took two weeks for the morning sickness to kick in. He was making coffee when his stomach violently protested and he scrambled for the trash, acidic bile stinging his throat and lips as it came up. He tried to pull back his hair with one hand, the other trembling as it clutched the plastic bag inside the can. All the sites he'd looked at had said that usually morning sickness and the like didn't happen until a month in.

He took a long shower that day.

xxxx

By the end of the first month, Ryou started running his fingers over his stomach whenever he wasn't doing something that required both hands. He knew the child was in there- Mariku was sitting on the couch to prove it- but he wouldn't see anything for another month and a half, at least.

He curled up on his computer chair, pulling his legs up. Mariku was drawing. When he drew, it was usually monsters he'd seen in the shadows- a coping mechanism, no doubt. It took him a few minutes to notice Ryou's typing sounds had stopped.

"Did you die?" It was a question he asked frequently, his equivalent to 'are you all right', Ryou figured.

" 'm fine." Ryou murmured. "Tired."

"Normal tired?"

"I'unno." Ryou pressed his chin into his knees. "It's… too early to tell if it's the baby or not." He knew he shouldn't call it that. He shouldn't get attached, because he wasn't going to keep it.

"I still can't believe you're willing to go through that for me." His filter was nonexistent, a fact Ryou appreciated. He didn't have to worry something went unspoken when Mariku blurted out anything that came to mind.

"And I don't regret it." Ryou slid off the chair, then sunk into the couch, resting his head on Mariku's lap once Mariku shoved the drawing supplies off of it. "I'd have done anything short of trading myself, and that's only because then I'd never be able to see you."

Mariku ran a hand through Ryou's hair, tugging too hard a few times, but eventually combing it to smooth. "I can't believe we ever just called you the host. You're so much more than that."

Ryou blinked. It wasn't often Mariku referred to Malik, even if it was in the plural involving them both. He smiled softly. "I really am a host now, though."

Mariku rolled his eyes.

xxxx

Ryou hated the mood swings. He found himself sobbing when he dropped a mug full of tea, even though he'd been meaning to get rid of that cracked one anyways. He snapped at the mailman for coming ten minutes late, then realized what he was saying and fumbled over an apology. He felt nauseous almost constantly, and had moved a trash can into every room to save his poor carpet.

That was on top of the fact that he felt tired all the time. He took naps during the day, but it didn't help the omnipresence of dark bags under his eyes and constant yawns.

Mariku was starting to get worried.

"This isn't killing you, is it?"

Ryou shook his head, curling up with a blanket. "No, they… they promised I wouldn't die. That was one of my conditions, and they can't back out of something that explicit. Could kill me after…" He yawned. "After delivery, I suppose, but what would the point of that be? They'll have their baby, I won't matter anymore."

Mariku grabbed Ryou's hand, squeezing it. "If they try, I'll rip their eyes out."

Ryou smiled weakly, grimacing as a cramp hit him. "I'd like to see that."

xxxx

At a month and a half, Ryou started bringing home more fast food. Mariku eagerly dove into it- Malik had always avoided grease, but he loved it. Ryou liked seeing Mariku eating happily, but honestly, he bought it because felt like he'd die if he didn't have the grease and sugar. He could nibble on a carrot now and then, but anything solely healthy had gone the way of coffee in that it made his nausea worse.

He had no idea if it was healthy for the baby, probably not, but maybe demon babies didn't need carrots and were making sure he knew that.

After almost a week straight of nothing but takeout, Ryou noticed a small layer of pudge around his middle. Great.

xxxx

It was hard to tell with the slight weight he'd gained, but Ryou swore he finally felt something hard under his hand when he pressed down at the end of two months. It was tiny, but it was there. His stomach cramped up, but when he gagged, nothing came up.

Oh. Right. He'd already thrown up everything he'd eaten that day about an hour earlier.

He hoped the demon didn't operate on a human timeframe, because he wasn't looking forward to another seven months of this.

xxxx

At two months and two weeks, Ryou was officially showing, even though it wasn't obvious unless he had his shirt off. He'd started leaving his jeans unbuttoned or just wearing sweatpants, the swell against tight fabric uncomfortable. He was glad he worked designing games and writing campaigns from home, because he'd started feeling irritated by anything and everything. He snarled at Mariku for leaving a half-empty glass of juice in the fridge, and for dropping a sharpie Ryou had been using.

Neither had gone over well, both escalating into the both of them shouting until Ryou turned white and started retching into the trash can, and they both realized he wasn't actually mad, just having a swing.

Ryou had started sticking a note on his shirt that said 'I'm not actually mad at you, it's the hormones' and Mariku plucked it off and waved it at him when he got too pissy.

xxxx

They kissed on the lips after a marathon of b-list horror movies that made both of them laugh. It would have been hard to take them seriously anyways, but once you'd been through hell and come back swinging, they were a lot funnier. Ryou had been rambling off trivia about the special effects when Mariku had brushed his hand against Ryou's cheek and asked if he could kiss him.

Ryou had replied by pressing their lips together, tasting popcorn butter and soda chapstick. When he pressed himself closer, he could feel the bump resting between them and tried to think of it as proof this was real.

xxxx

Ryou woke with a splitting headache at the day after three months. He filled and drank down a glass of water about six times, but his head still buzzed like there were bees inside of it. He knew he'd have to buy new clothes soon, most of what he had, while not formfitting, wasn't exactly loose, and besides-

Something moved.

Something moved.

He practically tore his shirt off, and Mariku grumbled at the movement, before seeing the look on Ryou's face.

"What is it?"

"It's moving." Ryou's voice was awed. "It's not supposed to for another two weeks at least."

"Nothing is normal about us, or that." Mariku set a hand against Ryou's stomach and frowned. "It's hot."

"Mmm?" Ryou gingerly prodded his belly, and realized Mariku was right. He could feel the heat starting to trickle up his spine. "Demon baby, remember? I should probably start expecting things to start going strange soon. For all I know, it'll be more than nine months. I hope not, though." He took a slow, deep breath.

Mariku's fingers curled up on Ryou's skin, and he locked eyes with him. "I'll be with you. Even if it eats through your insides and tries to attack me."

Ryou laughed. "My brave knight!"

Mariku leaned in for a kiss and it squirmed around again and this time, Ryou found he almost liked the sensation.

xxxx

Ryou was _really_ glad he worked from home now, because even just walking the metro to go to the store and back was starting to wind him. He could still hide the 15-week-old bump fairly easily under a few layers, but his back was killing him if he wasn't back in his comfy chair within an hour. Mariku accompanied him to carry the heavier items. Ryou was glad that other from the occasional snarl at someone for cutting in line or trying to flirt with Ryou, he behaved. He loved trying new things, be they smoothie samples or riding in a train. Everything was new to him- even things that Malik had experienced. If it happened after they were split at age ten, it was fuzzy, through a haze of fog.

If Ryou felt like crying from a particularly bad cramp or itching at his skin from the inside, he just had to pull out the picture of Mariku sitting in a field of dandelions and sticking his tongue out slightly, trying to make them into a very sticky flower crown.

Six more months.

xxxx

Things started going sideways at 20 weeks.

Ryou had begun sleeping on his side, the bump too big to sleep on his front and the baby weighing down his bladder if he slept on his back.

"Hrrk…" Unfortunately, the nausea hadn't gone away, so he always kept a garbage can right next to the bed, but this morning, he tasted something distinctly metallic mixed in with the bile.

When he flicked the light on, the typical yellowish-brown of sickness was red with blood and almost bubbling. He gagged again, before tying the bag off and throwing it out.

On the other side of the bed, Mariku turned over, eyes squeezed shut as he whined in his sleep about the loss of his living pillow, and Ryou washed out his mouth before crawling back into bed, warm belly between them.

xxxx

The next day, Ryou was cooking when a flash of heat struck him like he'd been shoved in a fire, and he dropped the spoon directly into the pan, gritting his teeth. Sweat dripped down his skin, and he gripped the counter.

"Are you- you're all right, aren't you?" Mariku was by his side in an instant- or at least it seemed like it. Maybe it had been a few minutes. Time wasn't working right.

"I'm… fine." Ryou mumbled, hand dropping to his stomach. Other than a few pounds of extra padding, it was starting to be obvious to any outside observer that what was settled in his body wasn't just fat.

"You… don't sound fine." Mariku said, wrapping his arms loosely around Ryou. "It's hurting you, isn't it?"

Ryou bit his lip- the contact felt like ice and lava at once. "I can handle it."

"You… you know you don't have to."

"I'm never sending you back." Ryou said firmly, and Mariku pulled away. As soon as his arms were gone, Ryou missed them.

xxxx

Ryou wanted to tear his hair out more than once by the end of the week. His energy rose and dropped like a roller coaster- one minute, he wanted to redecorate the living room and cook enough food to last a year, the next he felt like a remote running on a four-year-old battery, barely able to even sit up. It didn't help that the hot flashes were starting to occur daily, leaving him stripped down to just his boxers most days.

And of course that meant he saw it very clearly every time he looked down. He'd been so skinny before, it was jarring seeing his stomach almost blocking his toes. Pink lines dripped down his pale skin like paint, and it was moving a lot more now.

It didn't help that it had already developed something sharp (claws or teeth, he didn't know) and bruises dotted his belly.

Mariku offered him hugs and kisses belly rubs, but Ryou could see that he felt sick knowing that the only reason Ryou had to go through this was because of him, so Ryou usually turned him down on anything longer than a kiss, unless he felt really weak.

He could deal with it. He'd been host to the concentrated essence of the lord of darkness, he could handle a few kicks.

xxxx

Ryou hissed, curling his arms around his stomach. He'd been half-living off fast food during most of the pregnancy, but his stomach was starting to adamantly reject it. That would have been fine, but nothing else he ate- salads, pasta, veggies- settled properly either, leaving him perpetually starving. He swore his cheeks looked sunken in when he glanced in the mirror. The weight he'd gained was gone, leaving him feeling hollow everywhere but his middle.

His stomach growled on the way home from the store one day, and he sniffed the air. Something smelled good, for the first time in weeks, and he followed it to see a dead mouse laying belly-up in the alley behind his apartment.

He stared. It was surrounded by bits of chocolate- most likely someone had thrown a large bag of candy away and it had gorged itself to death.

His mind resisted but his stomach overrode it and he picked up the mouse, walked inside, washed it off, and shoved it in his mouth whole. He bit down only on the tail, and the blood tasted good.

Blood tasted good.

He was 23 weeks. More than halfway there, hopefully.

He just needed to stay sane.

xxxx

None of his clothes fit properly. Even his pants were too tight- his hips and butt had gained just enough weight he couldn't comfortably wear even sweatpants anywhere but home, so he resigned himself to buying two sizes larger of everything, knowing the growing wasn't done.

He had to take laps around the apartment at least twice a day or everything felt swollen. He'd started bringing home steak, and only cooked it for ten minutes, far under safe levels, before tearing into it, body craving the near-raw meat as well as plain bread and raw sugar.

His body was going to hate him when this was all over.

xxxx

One side effect that he hasn't expected was an increase in his libido. He'd managed just fine with toys before Mariku had come back, but he'd set a rule that they couldn't touch below the waist until the pregnancy was over in case it would hurt the baby and undo the deal. Unfortunately, since Mariku didn't usually leave the apartment except with Ryou and his belly was big enough now that it was difficult to handle on his own, he'd taken to humping pillows once Mariku had gone to bed, thoughts of the other's strong arms and beautiful face pushing him to the limit. He didn't know if Mariku assumed that pillows needed to be cleaned a lot or just didn't want to bring it up.

Ryou was going to jump him the second this was all over.

xxxx

30 weeks and his stomach felt like it had a lead weight inside of it most of the time. He had started piling pillows on the seat and back of his computer chair, but work was hard to focus on with a squirming weight constantly kicking and clawing at him. It made it difficult to sleep, and he was pretty sure the bags under his eyes were big enough to be classified as sentient entities.

Mariku only seemed to get more worried. "This is killing you. I can see your cheekbones." He stroked a hand down Ryou's face, fingers tracing over the alarming lack of fat on his cheeks. "It's sucking the life out of you."

"It can't kill me." Ryou said, trying to sound more confident than he felt as both hands cradled his swollen stomach. "That was part of the deal." At a particularly harsh jab, he lifted his arm to see a bruise blooming next to his belly button. "Oh, you hush."

"It doesn't mean you won't die of malnutrition twenty minutes after birth. You need to eat more."

"Mariku, I'm already eating twice as much as I used to, and then some."

"Bullshit. You didn't eat anything today besides half a pound of hamburger and a bag of carrot sticks."

"Demon babies lead to weird cravings. You didn't see the protein bars I had for breakfast.." Ryou stifled a burp, the ghost of the meat he'd had for lunch coming back up.

"You're never in bed, and you never stop moving when you are."

"You try sleeping with a stomach the size of a minivan strapped to your midsection." Ryou tried to laugh, but his lungs didn't quite seem able to pull in enough air.

"I'd rather go back than see you kill yourself for me." He grabbed Ryou's wrists, watching as Ryou froze.

"Don't… don't say that."

"It's true. I hate seeing you dying just for my sake. I love it here, you know that, I love ice cream and fresh grass and the way you look when something really cheesy happens in a horror movie, but I'd give it up to know that you were all right." He set a hand on top of Ryou's belly. "Promise me that if it ever is too much, you'll find some way to cancel the deal."

He could feel blood bubble under his skin as he was clawed from the inside. He nodded.

"Promise."

He was good at lying.

xxxx

32 weeks and he'd stopped cooking altogether. His cravings were either for takeout or raw meat, and he'd started sending Mariku to the store by himself, not wanting to leave the apartment. He felt like a tense violin string, tightened too much.

All of his shirts were pretty much crop tops now, and stretchmarks decorated his belly, digging into the skin.

He was lucky that he mostly communicated with his friends through texting or they would have checked him into the hospital by now. He waddled more than he walked, and often leaned on the furniture, getting winded easily.

He couldn't deny it anymore- it was draining him. More than just his energy and scraps of magic, his arms and legs both seemed thinner than they had before. The pregnancy sites he'd looked at said he should be gaining weight, but the growing number on the scale he had to use his phone to look at could only be attributed to the growth around his middle. Maybe he'd get lucky and it would want out early, but he doubted that.

xxxx

He'd collapsed while walking around the apartment twice, and Mariku had tucked him into bed so tightly it was like a straightjacket of blankets. 34 weeks and he felt more like an incubator over a person than ever, sweat matting his long hair to his face and neck. He was starving all the time, and if they didn't keep enough food in the room, he ended up chewing on whatever was nearby, which in one case- that would have been funny in any other context- was a candle. It wanted food, and if he didn't give in to it, it not only drove him to feel complete starvation, but started gnawing on Ryou's body itself, causing some of the worst pain of this whole ordeal.

He curled around his belly, only the top of his knees not touching it, and hugged a stuffed Malice Doll of Demise Yugi had given him as a birthday present ages ago. The thing had grown so large that every movement scraped inside of his skin, and he sobbed into the doll when Mariku was in the shower.

xxxx

At 35 weeks, he broke. He'd been trying to eat a box of candy when his stomach turned over and he gagged into the trash can. A soothing hand rubbing on his back, combined with the heat spreading up his chest and pooling in his belly, was too much. He choked out a sob.

"Ryou?" Mariku's eyes widened as Ryou buried his face in his chest, unable to fully hug him with his parasite-filled stomach in the way.

"It hur-hurts…" He sobbed, sure that Mariku could feel the movements. "I… I know I can do this, b-but…"

"Shhh, shh, it's okay…" Mariku's tone switched from soothing to heavy with fury. "As soon as they come to collect the thing, I'm ripping their heads off."

"No, they'll… they'll send you back." Ryou gripped desperately at the other's shirt. "I'm going through all this shit for you, you… you better appreciate it." He gritted his teeth at another writhing scratch. "Any bigger and it'll rip me… it'll rip me open. It's got to come out soon."

"It damn well better." Mariku pressed a kiss to Ryou's lips. "You brought me back to this world, and I don't want to live in it without you."

xxxx

His water broke at the end of 36 weeks when he was snuggled up with a blanket on the couch. The movements had grown so bad that he didn't even notice contractions starting for the first few hours, hadn't told Mariku to stay home. They'd gotten low on food, so Mariku sworn he'd only be gone an hour.

As soon as the pain started proper, Ryou didn't know how he'd missed it. His hips were being slammed with jackhammers and he arched up, biting into a pillow to fight back a scream. If he started screaming, he'd never stop. He tugged at his shorts, legs already starting to cramp up, and dropped them on the ground, curling up.

Breathe. Breathe. Try and spread his legs. The contractions were harsh but had about ten minutes between them. He regretted not giving Mariku a phone, now at the whim of when he'd return with the damn groceries, and Ryou hugged the pillow like it was a lifeline.

By the time the door creaked open, forty-five minutes after the water broke, his face was smeared with tears and dark fluid was leaking unto the couch cushions. He couldn't tell if it was blood or just something that resembled it, and at this point he didn't care.

Mariku dropped the bags, rushing forward. "Oh shit, oh shit, it's time already?" Ryou nodded mutely, hugging the pillow tighter as another contraction shot through him, and a pained whine hissed past his lips. "Okay, fuck, just… try and breathe."

They'd agreed no hospitals. The demon was probably coming to get the thing as soon as it was born, and they'd have more questions to answer than either was ready to deal with. Still, Ryou sorely wished they'd been able to do more than just look up 'what should happen during birth' on the internet. Mariku looked down between his legs, and gently pressed at the widening entrance. Ryou grunted. "Dun' touch it."

"It looks pretty well spread, you should… probably start pushing."

"I just want it ou-ghhhh!" Ryou squeezed his eyes shut, the urge to push down strong enough that he obeyed, pressure shoving downwards as he started feeling movement.

"That's it, just… just keep doing that." Mariku had one hand on his knee and the other one his opposite thigh and Ryou tried to focus on his worried face instead of the agony currently ripping his stomach and hips apart. He really hoped the demon had widened his hips enough for a somewhat non-agonizing birth, but from the way they felt like someone was knocking mallets on the inside of the bone, he doubted it.

Another contraction and he gasped, feeling the movements shift sharply and start moving downwards, bit by bit.

Mariku offered his hand and Ryou gripped it so tightly that he ended up carving crescents into skin, blood oozing around his fingers. He tried to breathe evenly, but his head spun, his stomach twisted, and his vision swirled with both pain and sweat dripping down his forehead. The contractions shortened to only a few minutes between them and he pushed at every one, but progress was slow, sometimes even stopping entirely.

The clock ticked an hour, then two. Mariku had moved back down to Ryou's legs, trying to watch progress, as Ryou was starting to feel like a ragdoll stuffed with dead batteries.

"The head's starting to come out!"

Ryou gritted his teeth and forced his last dregs of energy into continuing to push, feeling the thing starting to slide through his entrance. "Ffffffuck!"

"The head's almost out, one more push- damn, this thing has little horns- just keep going!" Mariku encouraged. "You're almost done with the hard part!"

"Easy for you to say!" Ryou snapped, nerves a fried electrical outlet. He groaned, giving a hard internal shove, and heard a sickening, slimy 'pop!' as the head was fully pushed out. He hissed as Mariku brushed the lips of his entrance as he started gently brushing the baby off.

"One more push and that's all of it."

Ryou took a long breath, bracing himself for the next contraction and gripping the ruined fabric of his pillow that he'd ripped up during the process. When it rocked through him, he bore down and gasped in relief as he could feel the rest of the body exit.

Mariku immediately set the thing down and brushed hands covered in birthing fluid and blood across Ryou's face. "You're still alive. Please say you're-"

"I'm alive." Ryou coughed, but smiled weakly, swaying. Mariku pulled him into a hug, but he gasped, stomach still very sore, and Mariku pulled back with stumbled apologies. Ryou felt one last contraction and gasped, pushing again, before feeling something slick slide out- the placenta, most likely.

There was a wailing noise, and Mariku scooted back down to look at the thing. It gripped up at nothing with dark eyes and clawed hands, and when its tail swayed through the air, Mariku's thumb was cut by the sharp end. He winced. "I can't imagine having to carry that thing."

"Guess I am the…" Ryou swallowed, breathing still not quite coming in right, "The strong one, then."

A cloud of smoke swirled into existence, and Mariku gripped Ryou's shoulders protectively as they were faced with the demon that had made the deal.

"Oh, aren't they precious?" It picked up its spawn, cooing. "You did well. Some of the hosts die from shock afterwards."

Mariku growled. "Never touch him again."

"Oh, I never touched him in the first place. Magic insemination makes it nice and easy if you're not an incubus, you know. Less messy." He turned to face Ryou, who was currently trying to muster up the energy to glare but not really making it. "As for you, don't worry. I don't care about you enough to enact some cherry-on-top trick like some demons might. I'll even give you a present- you can keep the organs, if you ever want to have something with your sweetheart there."

Ryou gritted his teeth. "Thank you." His body was wet cement and he wanted to sleep for a year.

The demon gave a finger-waggling wave before disappearing, leaving scorch marks on the carpet. True to its word, the fire that had accompanied the 'gift' of birthing organs didn't appear again. Ryou couldn't summon up the energy to care. His hips hurt, his stomach hurt, his very existence was a rubbed-sore bruise, and when Mariku gingerly picked him up to carry him to bed, he nuzzled into the scarred chest and drifted off to a dreamless sleep.


End file.
